If their problem with President Obama was political like they say, they could have baited the trap with something like the Constitution/Bill of Rights with a shredder/scissors/lighter or a representation of tax money. They didn't though, they selected something which in the United States has racist connotations due to a traditional negative stereotype.

At least they are going the "hacker" route instead of trying to play "innocent" and explain how it isn't racist because they like watermellon. On another note, I find those who always hate "political correctness" do so because they can't be racist like this without reprecussions from the court of public opinion.

Skyrmion:I've seen some pretty crazy shiat on Fark... but people who hate watermelon!?

Damn, that's farked up.

I don't like it. It has very little to do with the taste, although I've tasted watermelon that was actually absolutely delicious, and at the other end of the spectrum I've tasted watermelon that was insipid, bitter or completely tasteless.

It doesn't matter <i>how</i> it tastes--because whatever it tastes like, I'll be tasting it for the next week. Even so-called "burpless" varieties have the same effect. If I taste even the tiniest morsel, I'll have a case of indigestion that would kill a friggin' tyrannosaur that goes on for days. Some (but not all) cukes do the same thing, and so does cantaloupe. It's not worth the pain. Sometimes I'll still roll the dice for cucumbers in a salad because I very much love them, and fried pickles are farkawesome, but melon is pretty much off the menu.

By the way, I respect your take on this. You stood up much better than the denying chairwoman. I mean the post itself isn't all that horrible (to me) despite the racial stereotypes. It does not seem mean spirited. It's just insensitive and inappropriate for a public official.

The Why Not Guy:MyRandomName: Oh. We are back to one example proves the party thing.

One example? Even Helen Keller would have noticed more than one example.

/and she was hiding in an attic.

Yeah, the Libs are back at it again. Over and over again. Always with just one example of thoughtless racism. You would think libs would realize something about themselves after constantly repeating this faux pas. I mean how many times does it take?

I didn't know watermelon and fried chicken were a stereotype until someone mentioned it in college. My reaction was similar, I thought watermelon and fried chicken just sounded like a great summer meal for anyone who could find a good watermelon and had a halfway decent fried chicken recipe. I had to ask someone and this was roughly the response:

"Fried chicken and watermelon were considered cheap/throwaway foodstuffs at one point in the South, something black people reveled in when they could get it but generally disdained by the aristocratic southerners." Frankly, I still don't get it, a good fried chicken recipe is treated around here like a good ribs recipe is in other places and the ability to pick the best watermelon is a learned skill if not an innate talent, and a respected one. But I'm from Indiana, which has deeply racist roots, and almost no black people outside the cities so it gets weird regarding perceptions.

I had the same reaction as Forest Gump did when someone said "coon," the movie was the first time I heard the term used to refer anything other than raccoons. Same with "Spook" in the movie Sneakers, my thought was "how did they know he was in the CIA (which the character was and I knew was a reference to CIA operatives)? And why does that piss him off so much?"

In other words, I don't get this. Can someone else explain it to me? Is watermelon still so downtrodden?

Any word, when frequently used with intent to insult, becomes an insult. Boy, coon, spook, gay, retard... Any thing regularly used to insult or inspire fear becomes an object of fear and a source of insult. White hoods, crosses, hangman's nooses, watermelons, fried chicken...

It is the memory of insult and terror, handed down through generations, that makes words and things taboo long after they are not used to insult or terrorize.

A dog regularly beaten with a tennis racket will always cringe around tennis rackets. Puppies will learn their dam's fear of tennis rackets. When such a puppy grows up, it will bite tennis players who mean it no harm. Then the dog will be killed.

Ablejack:The Why Not Guy: MyRandomName: Oh. We are back to one example proves the party thing.

One example? Even Helen Keller would have noticed more than one example.

/and she was hiding in an attic.

Yeah, the Libs are back at it again. Over and over again. Always with just one example of thoughtless racism. You would think libs would realize something about themselves after constantly repeating this faux pas. I mean how many times does it take?

LookForTheArrow:Ablejack: The Why Not Guy: MyRandomName: Oh. We are back to one example proves the party thing.

One example? Even Helen Keller would have noticed more than one example.

/and she was hiding in an attic.

Yeah, the Libs are back at it again. Over and over again. Always with just one example of thoughtless racism. You would think libs would realize something about themselves after constantly repeating this faux pas. I mean how many times does it take?

how many news stories about racist republicans you have time for? :-)

I was just making clear the irony of MyRandomName's post. He seems to be complaining that the repeated criticisms of incidental Republican idiocy is becoming tiresome. I should have resorted to sarcasm. Irony always fails on FARK./amirong?

Ablejack:LookForTheArrow: Ablejack: The Why Not Guy: MyRandomName: Oh. We are back to one example proves the party thing.

One example? Even Helen Keller would have noticed more than one example.

/and she was hiding in an attic.

Yeah, the Libs are back at it again. Over and over again. Always with just one example of thoughtless racism. You would think libs would realize something about themselves after constantly repeating this faux pas. I mean how many times does it take?

how many news stories about racist republicans you have time for? :-)

I was just making clear the irony of MyRandomName's post. He seems to be complaining that the repeated criticisms of incidental Republican idiocy is becoming tiresome. I should have resorted to sarcasm. Irony always fails on FARK./amirong?

Perhaps the next version of th' Whirled Why'd Web will include a scratchy sarcasm font as well as that thing you need to punch people over standard tcp-ip.. but until then, we'll have to settle for a good mocking

Jim_Callahan:Extra silliness because watermelon's a southern food and the president's from Hawaii and then Illinois.

//Also, it's delicious, and you can spike it with vodka with relative ease.

Oof. Drunkest I ever got was at a party with fruit salad served in watermelon halves, all of it marinated in Everclear. I honestly had no idea it was spiked (I was probably more than half lit when I started in on it), and could not figure out why the fark I was so sick/blacking out. I've done my share of partying, and that was verrry atypical for me.

/Wait...the fruit salad had what in it?//Racist dumbass biatch is racist and dumbass. Also a biatch.

HighOnCraic:Make that four of us. We just need one more . . . to form a basketball team.

Can I join? I'll be the poor defending shootist (who can't dribble or really shoot better than anyone else) who the fans will inexplicably want more of - somehow overshadowing any of you who actually know how to play. They'll completely unfairly compare me to Pistol Pete (even though I'm not skilled enough to sniff his jock strap), as we have no overlapping skill sets besides - well - I have to confess:

/yet another black guy on Fark//haven't read the rest of the thread, but I'm sure there are others.

It's pretty irresponsible of you guys to all be hanging out in the same thread. What if something were to happen? It took us 15 years to collect the 4 of you, and I'll be goddamned if we're about to start again at zero.

Montana, along with the Dakotas, Alabamas, Georgias, Carolinas, And Virginias, need their GOP abolished. There's just no good that can come from this extreme partisanship. If we can swing these awful resource-producing states into the blue, then maybe Amerrica will have a future. Until then, enjoy your despotism, cronyism, and good-ol-boy networks. Hope that works out for y'all....just leave the rest of us out of it, we can let Mexico and Canada fight for what's left of you, and then come in and reap the profits when both sides fail.

Jim_Callahan:Extra silliness because watermelon's a southern food and the president's from Hawaii Kenya and then IllinoisMoscow.

FTFY.

By the way, is there any proof that Obama has never lived in Pyongyang? Who knows what he might have been doing there?? This time, not only the MSM but actual patriotic conservative news sources are ignoring this story, so it must be HUGE.

//Also, it's delicious, and you can spike it with vodka with relative ease.

/yet another black guy on Fark//haven't read the rest of the thread, but I'm sure there are others.

It's pretty irresponsible of you guys to all be hanging out in the same thread. What if something were to happen? It took us 15 years to collect the 4 of you, and I'll be goddamned if we're about to start again at zero.